It was near nine o'clock when we entered Newry: I could not tell what to make of it in the gloom of a cloudy evening; particularly of one building, a church, standing on what seemed to be an inaccessible height. We drove through handsome streets, and I lost no time in delivering the porter's message at the very elegant hotel where we stopped. All was in commotion, a chaise was ready, and our luggage, safely stowed in it, before I supposed it could be ordered; but to startle the household, perhaps at midnight, I could not bear ; Sunday travelling was out of the question; and here we are, to remain till Monday. Mr. Ellis, a new conservative candidate, is haranguing a party under the roof of this hotel, in an out-office; the maid says, five thousand gentlemen. To judge from a peep that I have taken, I should think a deduction of four thousand seven hundred would bring us nearer the mark. However, there is prodigious clapping and shouting; and I feel myself affected somewhat like my orange friend at Dundalk-exceedingly indisposed to forward the views of the opposite party. But I must close this long letter; and reserve for another what I may have to say respecting Newry, which seems worth a day's investigation.

LETTER VII.

COUNTY DOWN.

Newry, July.

ONCE again I am brought into contact with Ireland's master evil: the very root of all that poisons her atmosphere-the enemy with whom to grapple is to fight for her; and to expel whom, would be to shed light and glory upon her land. I say, to expel, not to transform into a different shape. Satan will not cast out Satan; man cannot. It is for the finger of God alone to achieve such a victory; and as he does nothing in vain or imperfectly, I confidently say that to expel Popery from Ireland would be to diffuse light and glory where the blackness of darkness now reigns. My spirit has not been so stirred within me since I set foot on these green shores, as on the morning following my arrival in Newry. The Sabbath broke in unclouded splendour, and I arose refreshed, with no other anxiety on my mind than to insure the privilege of a gospel ministry during the day. Requesting an interview with

the very gentlemanly master of the establishment, whose kind efforts to forward me on my way the preceding evening I had duly appreciated, I inquired, as the safest guide, what church Lord Roden attended, when in Newry. Mr. Davis answered that he was not sure; but added, that if I would accept a share in his pew at St. Patrick's church, he thought I should be well pleased with Mr. Bagot's successor. In Ireland, morning service commences at mid-day; a practice that I do not at all approve, unless an opportunity was given to such as chose it, of attending early prayers, some hours previous. W― being anxious to enjoy a walk in the interval, I agreed to set out at eleven, and we made a tour through streets as quiet as could be wished, broad, handsome, clean, well-paved streets, intersected by a fine canal, and wearing, notwithstanding the season of perfect rest, such an aspect as assured me that it is a place of thriving activity, trade and commerce through the week. The water is banked in with very solid stone work, every thing indicating that neither cost nor skill have been spared to distinguish the place by superior advantages. The suburbs appeared most beautiful; noble hills, rich gardens, and fine mansions seemed to embellish it on all sides; and a more pleasing impression could not be made by a town of the same size. It wants,

indeed, the air of antiquity that spreads a halo round Drogheda; tinged with the various hues of many stirring recollections; but there is a freshness of atmosphere, no less than of architecture,in Newry, very delightful to the sense. Neither are you to suppose, that it is altogether of recent growth; its foundation is very ancient, Maurice M'Laughlin, king of all Ireland, having established a religious institution here a hundred years previous to the English invasion; but in 1689, the Duke of Berwick burned the town, to facilitate his retreat before Duke Schomberg, and Newry arose from its ashes after the happy settlement of the country in 1691, since which it has been constantly improving.

The spire of a handsome church attracted us to walk past it; and there, just opposite, we saw a striking proof of the retrograde movements which are rapidly undoing that work, accomplished at the cost of so much blood and suffering. An edifice of most imposing character faced, truly I may say outfaced, the parish church: its use could not be mistaken: it is the Romish temple, justly called a cathedral. A costly piece of architecture, grand, tasteful, and, alas! most spacious, yet not enough so to contain the thousands who throng that scene of false worship, as is clear from the numbers who remain excluded, and whose pros

trations in the open street, at the elevation of an idol which they cannot see, vex the eyes and grieve the hearts of all who love God, and who know what denunciations of wrath must overhang a land where the woman Jezebel is so suffered, yea, encouraged, to teach and seduce his people. The doors were open, and no service at that time going on; and could I have permitted the "lust of the eye" so far to draw me aside from the straight path of Christian consistency, I should have entered, to behold with what sumptuous decorations the deceivers and deceived do honour to them that be no gods: but I would not thus defile my conscience. If we have reason to hope that we, according to the apostle's language, are the temples of God, then it becomes a solemn question, how we can enter a place of idolatrous worship without a breach of the rule laid down in the latter part of the sixth chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians. I have been told that my scruple is new and singular: but although it was first suggested to my mind by Scripture alone, I find it was held, and practised too, by the confessors and martyrs of Mary's days. Bradford's writings in particular, abound with admonitions on this subject and I constantly pray to be kept stedfast in my resolution, never in any mode or in any sense, to touch the unclean thing, excepting